Gotham High
by Chuckles the joker
Summary: This takes place when most of the characters are in high school (and the ages are slightly off so I can fit them all in a four year period). But please enjoy meeting Jerome, Bruce, Ed, and a special love interest who I think you all will recognize.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Gotham High

All 1200 people filed into the old grey building, all feeling uneasy about the wars they were about to face. Few were ignorant and looked forward to the hell. Some even enjoyed the torture. People were terrorized there, it was survival of the smartest, survival of the strongest...survival of the craziest. Blood would be shed, tears would drop, and wars would be battled. Those who survived often left with memories...memories of these horrific events, nobody ever left with a smile, nobody would be that insane to actually enjoy-

"Do you smell that?" A wild looking red-headed kid breathed in a gulp of air with a wide grin. "Smells like high school."

"Yeah, that's the smell of swirlies." A tall, dark haired boy sighed, and then sneezed.

"Oh, Eddie boy!" The red-headed teen sighed with a smile and patted 'Eddie' on the shoulder. "High school isn't bad if you can just laugh a little."

"Jerome," the tall boy began, starting to walk down the hallway. "I like to take education seriously." He adjusted his large framed glasses.

"Education?" Jerome looked almost confused before giggling a little. "Education!?" He caught up to his friend and slammed into the locker in front of Edward. "High school is not about 'education'," He mocked the term. "If high school was about education, we'd all be successful and rich. But high school is about making the smart, smarter." He tapped on his friend's chest a few times. "And make people like me," he pointed to himself. "Crazier." He looked so serious, he almost looked innocent and possibly sane. "Sure you learn a few things here and there...but when will I need to know parts of a cell or parts of a dead frog- which I'll admit, that was fun to dissect, but seriously, they use people like me to make the rich kids look smarter than they are and then they get richer and we get treated like their slaves."

"Okay..." Ed gave a weirded out stare before walking around Jerome, in a hurry to get to class extra early.

"Oh, and I got Mrs. O'dell for science, and she's a tough cookie, so if you don't do my homework, I'm gonna fail." Jerome yelled down the hall watching Edward scurry through the crowded hallway like a mouse. "I'll never understand that kid..." he mumbled quietly with a furrowed brow and a side smile. "-well, hello there." He quickly jumped into the crowd of people flowing through the halls to follow a group of mostly snobby cheerleaders. "I'm Jerome."

"BOO!" A loud voice yelled.

A young student screamed,shriekier than the average male scream should probably be. He nearly threw his book off of his lap, heart stopping before speeding up and adrenalin pumping for a moment. Mrs. Janey; the librarian peaked around the corner to sternly put her finger to her lips and shush the two boys.

"Relax, Spaz! I was just playing!" The taller boy chuckled down at the poor freshman.

"Don't call me that!" The boy shrieked standing up from the library couch, but quickly regretted his decision when the bully narrowed his eyes.

"Listen, Jonathan, " he snarled, poking at the kids chest. "I do what I want when I want, this is my school." Jonathan nodded his head quickly and backed away.

Another student lurked quietly among the books, watching. The figure was dressed rather formally than most of the children, especially for a public school.

"It's no use, I've been here half a day and he's already made my life miserable." Jonathan sighed, beginning to gather his things before the bell.

"What a jerk." The black and white figure growled.

"I'm used to it now." Jonathan explained, not looking at the figure.

"Used to what?" The silhouette asked.

"The teasing. The bullying. It's old." He sighed. "Oswald, right?"

"Uh, yeah, how did you know?" He stepped out of the shadows and accompanied Jonathan on the chair across from him. "It's uh, Oswald Cobblepot, nice to meet you."

"Heard some rumors here and there." The boy scanned through his book. "Oh uh, it's Jonathan Crane by the way."

"Rumors..Sounds like a good start to the year. Say, why don't we take care of that bully of yours. I mean we're friends now, right?" Oswald asked, his smile was pointed at the corners and evil.

"Uh, sure."

-

"I said!" He raised his voice and cleared his throat. "I'm Jerome."

A brunette with light highlights quickly turned around to shoot a glare. She looked up and down and kept the look of disgust. She popped a bubble and rolled her eyes then continued walking. Jerome growled lowly, "Offense taken." He grumbled. After a few minutes of following the girls, they began to notice.

Another girl turned around, this one had her hair dyed a lavender color. "Get out of here, freak."

His lip quivered slightly as he mouthed the word a few times, questioning its meaning. They all giggled, sounding more like a coven of witches, "Go back home to the circus!" Another one joined in.

"Well, its more of a big talent show-" He quickly tried to explain, but was lost for words when interrupted with more insults.

"Oh, yes, I heard about all your moms talents!" The first girl cackled.

"My mom's just a snake ch-charmer-she she just dances and-!" He began feeling overly protective, he didn't know why, he barely liked his mom.

"Oh, I'm sure Jerome." The cheer captain mocked, giggling.

"Guys, quit it." One whispered to the group, hushing them for a few seconds, keeping her head down shyly.

Jerome looked up a little surprised, but didn't get too hopeful, he was used to fake acts of kindness. But the blonde looked back and gave a tight smile before quickly starting up a conversation about the latest news. He turned looking sad and confused but his smirk dug its way through and spread from ear to ear. He wasn't actually too sad, he found that he couldn't quite feel too much of anything really, he learned early in high school that to have little emotion was 'odd' or different. But he was surprised, nobody ever really stood up for him, or even smiled at him for that matter.

He shuffled behind them for a little while longer, not following them in particular. The young blonde, probably not more than a year younger looked back, looking embarrassed when she locked eyes with him. She quickly tucked back a loose strand of hair behind her ear and finally turned a corner with the small group of girls.

"There you are!" A hand landed on his shoulder.

The firey teen nearly snarled. "Do you know many germs are living on the human hand?" He lifted the hand off with his pointer and thumb with pure disgust.

"Ooh, is that a riddle?" Edward began to walk next to Jerome.

"No-"

"332, 000 different bact-" he began to read off from memory.

"No." He almost growled. "A lot." He laughed sharply and then quickly dropped to an almost normal tone. "So don't touch me."

"Not to worry! I sanitize quite frequently." Nygma waited a few seconds to gather his thoughts again. "Right, you were supposed to have lunch at our table and you left me and you left me with that weird kid that always looks like he's about to be attacked."

"Jonathan? He's still trying to eat with us?" Jerome laughed. "We're too popular for our own good." He smirked sarcastically.

"Holy fuck!" An amused voice shouted excitedly, while multiple crashes and screams were muffled by the distance.

"It sounds like someone's hurt." Ed turned to Jerome quickly looking a little frantic and worried.

"Yes," A sly devilish grin crept on his face.

They quickly got swept into the tide of teens that made their way to the commotion, the screams quickly became clearer and the shrieking words became audible.

"You think that *I'm* crazy?" I sarcastic and sharp chuckle echoed just around the corner.

"Well? Who is it?" Ed tapped the redhead on the shoulder curiously.

Jerome quickly brushed his hand off as he peeked over the heads of the crowd. He stood there a few moments...another couple seconds...maybe a little too long. "Jerome!"

"It's that cute blonde chick..." He whispered to himself, ignoring poor Ed. "And she's kinda hot when she's mad."

...TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N Haven't been on here in a while but it feels good to be back! Please leave me a review so I can improve!


	2. Chapter 2: Drama class

"Who are you talking about?" Edward asked trying to see past the crowd.

"Well, my nerdy little bean pole, I am glad you asked!" Jerome jumped down from the lunch table where he was watching the fight and wrapped his arm around his friend's shoulder. "She is the greatest girl at this school." He looked off into the distance, looking overly happy.

"Good for you," Ed seemed quite surprised from Jerome actually showing emotion and not just that bullshit he fakes. Like any emotion besides anger or crazy happy. He had a crush...Possibly? "What's she like?"

"Uhh, she's pretty." He began to list. "And she's uh nice...I think."

"Okay...anything else?" Ed became less impressed.

"She uh- she...I uh- no." Jerome bit his lip and nodded slightly in the realization of the lack of knowledge about her.

"You don't even know her interests? Hobbies even?" The dark haired boy held back a sigh.

"No...OHHH wait! She-She's a cheerleader!" Jerome's wide smile returned in victory.

Nygma chuckled a bit, almost as if Jerome told a joke. Which was common but he soon came to the conclusion that Jerome wasn't laughing with him. "A cheerleader, Jerome? I don't think you have a chance, bud."

The red-head narrowed his eyes, a scowl crossed his face. "What makes you say that, bud." He mimicked through his clenched jaw.

"We're us. And they're them. We are on the bottom of the food chain and they are like the lionesses." He explained.

"Who's to say a lioness wouldn't want to prey on this hunk of meat?" Jerome danced on the spot a bit.

"Well she's either dumb or not interested." Nygma sighed.

"Dude, she's perfect though. I'm serious." Jerome sat quietly on a bench, in deep thought. "Never thought I'd say that." He chuckled.

Edward began to explain is lack of faith for his friend when more screaming echoed through the halls, the crowd tried squeezing closer to the fight but it was already completely packed. Jerome quickly jumped back up, standing on the lunch table to get a better view.

"You bitch! You slept with him, didn't you? Harleen!" An angry brunette screamed. She wore a cheerleading outfit, the same one as the blonde, but she had a patch on hers, which meant she was the cheer captain. The blonde just giggled.

"I didn't sleep with anyone." She answered, laughing like the brunette had told a joke.

But that didn't stop her from throwing a punch at the giggly blonde, whose pig tails were now uneven. The crowd jumped with surprise, then fell silent waiting for what would happen next. Jerome eagerly leaned in, and without realizing it, he was trying to see if the blonde was okay. Harleen was on one knee now and her hands covered her face. Her back was bobbing, assuming she was crying the school felt guilty for just watching. But that's when she looked up, her nose was beginning to bruise and blood oozed over her lips. She wasn't crying...She was laughing.

"Is that it?" She cackled. "All bark and no bite."

"You're fucking psycho." The curly haired brunette stuttered, in shock as she watched Harleen jump to her feet.

"I'm not going to fight you, but believe me, I can hurt you. So. fuck. off." The pig tailed girl growled. Her tone quickly changed into a sweet child and added, "See you at practice tomorrow." With a quick smirk she marched away without a limp.

"Ed?" The red head nearly whispered.

"Yeah?" He answered, still trying to see over the crowd.

"I think I'm in love." He laughed half jokingly.

"Yeah, yeah." Nygma sighed. "Let's go to class, we're going to be late for drama."

The dark haired boy lead his friend through the crowd and into the halls.

* * *

"Hey! She just stole my lunch!" A muscular teen with acne spread over his shoulders and face yelled, pointing down the hall.

A young girl chuckled quietly, jogging through the halls as she took a bite of her freshly stolen sandwich. Her brown curls bobbed over her face gracefully. She savored every bite, its been a few months since she had a sandwich. As she passed through people, she swiped up a few dollars from their pockets. "God, I love high school." She smiled wickedly at a twenty dollar bill.

"Miss?" A hall monitor yelled at her. Uh oh.

"Sorry lady, I have class to go to!" She yelled at the older woman before disappearing into a classroom.

"Cat!" A young red haired girl yelled excitedly. "I don't like this. I just want to go back to my garden." She whined. She leaned in carefully to Cat's ear. "And I'm pretty sure that chick is eating a raw potato with mustard..." She whispered quietly and looked over her shoulder at a strange girl whose hair was unbrushed and covered her face. "I don't like this." She nearly gagged.

Cat glanced at the frizzy haired girl (Surprisingly frizzier than Ivy's), who's outfit looked like it was matched by a homeless blind man. She chuckled, and guided her friend to two seats next to each other at the back.

* * *

The bell rang, signaling the first official class of the school year, multiple students groaned in boredom at the same old sound that they heard every year after their nice summer vacation. Jerome threw his head back, shutting his eyes for a moment with a scowl and quickly told himself to sheer up, it's not like he was actually going to get work done, it was the first day of school. No teachers in their right minds made the students do work on their first-

"Okay class, just because its the first day, doesn't mean we aren't going to get some work done." The teacher told the class.

"Oh, you've gotta be shitting me." The fiery teen grumbled under his breath in disbelief.

After a moment to himself, completely zoning out the teacher's introduction, he lifted his eyes up at the fancily dressed woman (for Gotham public anyway.)

"Jeremy is it?" She asked, staring directly at him, her tight bun seemed to pull back her eyebrows.

He put on his most innocent smile with a small sweet (fake) laugh. "No, ma'am, it's Jerome." His charm worked and made the teacher replace her stern look with a tight smile.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Jerome." She corrected herself. "Would you like to be one of my volunteers?"

'Fuck no. What the hell. I just want to sleep. Honestly. And I'm kinda plotting to hurt you now for suggesting that. What the HELL is wrong with me. Is this normal for me to think that. No. Fuck you, bitch.' He screamed in his head.

"Of course!" He lied, tilted his head and smiled.

He wasn't quite sure why he wasn't normal. He just knew that the way other kids acted was different from him. He had to learn to feel emotion or at least act like it. Strangely enough, he was great at it. He'd cry once in awhile, when he really needed that extra mark, make up a sob story about his cat going missing. 'You're so sensitive' they'd say, but they didn't know. Oh, man, they just didn't know.

"Perfect." She smiled, her red lipstick was bright. 'I like that colour.' "Please just stand beside Bruce." As she called out the other boys name, she looked curiously at him. "How old are you?"

"Fourteen, Mrs. Dandle."

Jerome let out a throaty laugh, that sounded more like an elephant. He quickly got back into his character and started a fake laughing fit to cover up his laughing. 'Dandle. Ha. It's Dandle, Mrs. Dandle. Hahahaha.' He mocked her name in a James Bond voice in his head. 'What a dumb name.'

"Bruce, I don't believe you're in the right class." She stated. "But it's an honor to have you here, Mr. Wayne." She smiled, almost in awe.

'I hate rich kids...'

"You are the son of Gotham aren't you, Bruce?" She asked, she almost seemed like a fan the way she looked excited by every word he spoke.

"Yes, ma'am, that's what they call me." He smiled politely. 'What a dick.'

Jerome lifted himself from his chair, smiling innocently at Bruce and greeted him. "So nice to meet you, Mr. Wayne." He mimicked the fan-like tone that Mrs. Dandle had used. 'I honestly hate you, rich snob.'

"Very nice to meet you as well, Jerome? Right?" Bruce tried to clarify. 'It's not that fucking hard to remember, kid. Jer-Ome. That fucking simple. What's so hard to remember?'

"You are correct." Jerome smiled sweetly, shaking the boy's hand firmly.

"Now boys, I'm going to give you a simple warm-up task, okay?" The teacher smiled, it was a little off... "I'd like the two of you to act out a Romeo and Juliet scene."

Jerome stopped smiling. 'What the hell? I have no problem with guy on guy action, but I just fucking met this kid, I have no intentions of touching him unless it's to wrap my hands around his neck! Hehe, that sounds kinky.'

The red head transitioned back into character. "Uh-excuse me ma'am? Can you repeat that?"

"Bruce will be Juliet, and Jerry, you can be Romeo." She smiled. 'Seriously though, guys, it's not that hard to remember.

"His name's 'Jerome', Mrs. Dandle." Bruce quietly corrected her before Jerome could. 'Thanks, kid. You're not that bad. Still want to hurt you, but whatever.'

"Yes, well, let's get onto the scene now." She completely ignored the correction. "Make it up as you go."

'I didn't even fucking watch the movie, let alone read it...'

"I'll give you both two minutes to prepare for a scene. Make it up, but relate it to the book." She directed them, expecting them to know exactly what they were supposed to do.

Jerome nervously laughed with a tight smile. "Can we just not do that? Heh, like maybe be different character?"

"No." She told him sternly.

"Okay...Uh, Juliet, How is thee?" He turned to Bruce who looked just as confused. "Just play along for a minute or so." Jerome whispered into Bruce's ear.

"Good day, Jer-Romeo. I am well." Bruce stuttered.

Jerome heavily sighed and then put on his best smile. "Juliet, you look ravishing this even evening."

"Oh, why thank you, I received this uh, dress from Paris." Bruce wasn't even trying to change his voice.

"Who's this 'Paris' you speak of, huh Juliet?" Jerome thought that if anyone made him do something, he might as well try to enjoy it. He was going to make this a good comedy show.

Bruce smiled, he silently accepted the red headed boy's invitation to the argument. "Oh, dear he's only my fiancé."

Jerome cracked his knuckles. "Imma break his neck."

Without thinking, Edward jumped up from his seat and joined the play. "I am Paris." He declared.

"He's a tall one." Jerome smiled. A devilish smirk crossed his face, "You know what they say about the tall ones, they usually-"

"Alright boys, that's enough for today." The teacher quickly interrupted before Jerome could finish his little statement.

Bruce was quick to listen to the instructions, being the perfect little goody two shoes that he was, which was sad because Jerome was just starting to be okay with him.

"But I must fight for my lady." Jerome declared. "I challenge you, Paris, to a thumb war." He chuckled.

Before the two could continue on, a voice yelled out from the audience. "Just stop. You aren't funny." Jerome stopped dead in his tracks, he smiled slightly, it was just another bully to defeat. He licked his lips quickly, taking a moment before looking up at the boy. He was only 5'8ish at the most and didn't exactly 'wow' the ladies (or gentlemen) with his looks.

"What did you just say?" Jerome growled slowly. He lost his innocent act completely, which surprised the ugly douche.

The boy also known as Andrew let out a few stutters at first. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear you." Jerome clenched his jaw, staring eerily into the kid's eyes.

In a quick mission with loaded testosterone, the boy repeated his earlier command. "I said, you're not funny." The red-headed boy stopped for a second before wickedly laughing, the whole class watched, not knowing what to do. "If you want to see something funny, I could shove this fist, right into your head." Jerome smiled almost inhumanly.

"Okay, you boys are going straight to detention at lunch." Mrs. Dandle ordered.

Jerome didn't take his eyes of Andrew, he stood silently for a few seconds, before lifting his hand to his neck and making a slicing motion across his throat with his thumb. Which was indeed a clear threat.

A/N The next chapter I think will mostly be in detention and I think that'll be interesting, sorry for the long wait, I've been super busy with so much stuff lately.


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